DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-1437987503 washington DC Engineering Resilience In Water Supply: How Ozone-Based Oxidation Supports DC Water's Pure Water DC Vision

Securing urban water futures requires shifting toward resilient, multi-source supplies. Advanced oxidation provides a critical barrier against emerging contaminants, enhancing treatment efficiency and ensuring long-term reliability without chemical residuals. Explore the foundations of engineering a decentralized, drought-proof water supply.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The latest generation of brine electrochlorination technology, the ClorTec DN range, offers simple operation and maintenance as well as unrivalled safety advantages.

Engineered and built for dependable performance, the TrojanUVSwift® requires a minimal number of lamps to treat a given flow, and is serviceable from one side for easy maintenance. It also incorporates innovative features to reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, including variable output lamp drivers and our revolutionary ActiClean® automatic sleeve wiping system.

The PanaFlow gas meter system consists of two models— the one-path PanaFlow Z1G and the two-path PanaFlow Z2G. Both meters offer a high-performance, yet affordable solution for a variety of gas flow applications.

Calgon Carbon’s liquid-phase equipment systems provide utilities with compact, flexible, and cost-effective means to apply both granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange (IX) technologies to treat even the most difficult water treatment challenges.

The PT5 is a rugged, lab-accurate water quality pocket tester with simple, one-button functionality.

Recordall® Fire Series Assemblies (FSAA) are ideal when fire service mains are also being used to supply water for secondary services, such as drinking fountains and general purpose plumbing fixtures. In addition to the strainer, Turbo meter and check valve, the assembly also includes a bypass configuration with Recordall Turbo or Disc Series meters for diverting flow not related to fire demand.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

North Carolina’s Cape Fear River is a massive water system. It stretches across the lower half of the state, collecting runoff from 29 counties and providing water to millions of people. But in the city of Wilmington, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean, the water has residents worried.

Alex and the crew travel to Saudi Arabia and talk to Noura Shehab, a Ph.D. student at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), about her research to use microbes to power sea water desalination.

Water utilities need reliable data to meet regulatory demands, manage operations, and deliver excellent customer service. Master Meter’s Allegro AMI and Allegro Mobile technologies offer smart, scalable solutions to support these needs. Allegro AMI provides hourly data on consumption, tampering, and leaks, automatically sent to the utility office.

As aquatic invasive species continue to overwhelm hydropower, industrial, and municipal systems worldwide, this webinar explores why traditional filtration and chemicals are falling short—and how a dual-barrier UV approach is emerging as a proven, chemical-free alternative backed by global field results.

In this episode of the Water Online Show, hosts Travis Kennedy and Kevin Westerling explore AI's transformative role in water utility operations with guest Dave Brown, Director of Maintenance at Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD), which serves nearly a million customers across 682 square miles in Southern California.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.